


safer on the seas

by MementoMoriPontifexMortis



Series: to the seas [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst, Drabble, Female Vinsmoke Sanji, Gen, I have no clue where I was going while writing this, Slight Meta, Wordcount: 100-1.000, but I found it in my documents and am now sharing with you guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 22:21:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10706331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MementoMoriPontifexMortis/pseuds/MementoMoriPontifexMortis
Summary: “I’ll be found out if I leave.”  Her voice sharp and her words blunt, she crossed her arms over her chest as she stood in the doorway of his room. She glared at him with those deep blue eyes as she awaited his answer.





	safer on the seas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TinyTeddy878](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyTeddy878/gifts).



> Like the tags say, I have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote this, but I wrote it sometime last year and found it while going through my documents and wanted to share with you guys. This is pretty much my first thing ever posted for One Piece and it's like a hundred times more meta than anything else. 
> 
> This is dedicated to TinyTeddy878 who convinced me to post it despite me not telling her anything about it. Thanks love!

“I’ll be found out if I leave.” Her voice sharp and her words blunt, she crossed her arms over her chest as she stood in the doorway of his room. She glared at him with those deep blue eyes as she awaited his answer.

Since finding out about her being a Vinsmoke, he’d been hiding her. She had, obviously, been hiding it for as long as she could, probably scared of what he might say or do, but the secret came out when she had to dart out of the eye line of a man from the North Blue while they were at the market. He found her half and hour later, shaking and hiding in the forest of the island that the market had been on. The man had been talking about the Vinsmoke family and he could put two and two together to make four. 

He had bent down and asked her bluntly, just like her current words, if she had been a Vinsmoke child. She nodded and whispered, “Please don’t send me back to the dungeon.” before putting her head down in her knees. He had nodded and patted her back, unsure of what to say or do, but already he knew that he was going to protect her. 

And he had. She had grown from a simple child to the young woman she was today without ever being caught. She had flourished in her adolescence and in her fighting ability. Even though he normally was a big believer on not hitting women, he knew that she would have to be taught and that she would be wonderful with his fighting technique. 

“I’ll be found out if I leave.” 

The words echoed in his mind; they were the truth. She would be found, maybe not right away, but at some point, she’d be found and she’d get taken back to that hell hole she had been born in. She never told him much, but she didn’t need to. He had been a pirate long enough to hear the horror stories that came from the Vinsmoke family. He couldn’t imagine what sort of parent would experiment on their child, much less what sort of parent would throw their child into a prison just for not being as great as the rest, but that was the family his eggplant came from and it was a place he would fight to keep her out of. 

“I’ll be found out if I leave,” was the truth, the most terrifying truth. She was going to travel everywhere, grow close to her crew mates and then be taken from them in some insidious way and he would never know. If he wanted to keep her safe, at least 50% safer than she’d be leaving, he’d keep her there. Tell her not to go, she’d listen, she’d abandon the All Blue for him, but he couldn’t. 

She didn’t know it, but the Baratie was a prison of sorts for her. Nothing like the cage that her family held her in, but close enough that he couldn’t keep her. She’d have to go out, she’d have to get experience and stronger and hopefully, not get caught. 

“I’ll be found if I leave,” Sanju said, her arms crossed over her chest, deep blue eyes glaring at him as he sat on his bed, nursing his aching stump. “Do you really think I should leave?” 

Zeff paused, a moment of hesitation that went unnoticed, “Yes, I do.”

She had other words she wanted to say on the tip of her tongue, he could tell but all she did was unfold her arms and nod, leaving the room. She’d go smoke, she’d get asked once more by the pirate and then he’d make a big show of making her leave. It was the only way she’d ever leave and it would hurt him, but it was for the best. She couldn’t stay and he couldn’t expect her to. She was a big girl, a born soldier for her father and a trained chef and fighter for him, but it would hurt. 

“I’ll be found out if I leave,” She had said, her voice little like when she was a kid, and though that thought hurt him a lot, he knew keeping her would hurt them both more. She’d be found out, but the Strawhat would help her – save her where all he could do was hide her. She’d be found out, but she’d get out in the end. 

(And if letters are sent out to people he knew back when he was still a pirate, people who owed him favors, he would deny it to his last breath.)

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and kudos!


End file.
